Thy Gold to Refine No. 4 in the The Work and the Glory series By Gerald N. Lund Bookcraft, 1993. Hardback: 605 pages. ISBN: 0-88494-893-5 1993 AML Award: Novel
Reviewed by: LindaLee Stahlman

I waited several weeks between V. 3 and this volume to even request it. This volume picked up my interest in the series and I sent for V. 5 when I was halfway through with it.

One of the things I noted in my review of V. 3-the fact that I found it hard to believe that Joshua Steed who had been so anti-Joseph Smith so readily accepted him as mediator between him and his family-was explained in this volume.

However, I did have problems with the idea of Joshua so easily accepting his mother's suggestion that he had had Savannah(his daughter) to heal the breach between him and his father. Joshua has been so non-religious.

Ever since Jessica and John Griffith moved to Haun's Mill, I had been wondering who would get killed there. I liked the way real stories of Haun's Mill were interwoven with the fictional character's.

After he was shot, I was sure that Joshua was dead and kept wanting to skip ahead to find out for sure-even tho I find them interesting, there are getting to be too many characters to keep track of and too many scenes in between connecting scenes. From the first scenes in their cabin with Matthew and Joshua, I was sure that the McIntires would join the church.

I would find this series more believable if the Steeds had even more hardships-having both Joshua and Carl(their son-in-law) show up with wagons and goods to help them move in the exodus from Missouri was a coincidence that was hard to believe(especially since I didn't think Melissa would be seen again). How many large families of that time period who had moved as much as the Steeds got all their children together? Travel was not as easy as is now. And how many Saints in the Missouri exodus had non-member relatives who could do things like pay a ferry owner $100?

I realize Lund had to have his characters in certain situations in order to tell the story, but the coincidences of them always being so close to the Prophet and important events in the church is getting a little unbelievable.

I still find myself wondering how long this series will stretch out and wishing it didn't take so many volumes to tell the story.

-- 
LindaLee Stahlman			If you are to be happy,
					just be happy
lindalee@falcon.cc.ukans.edu		not happy because.